french troops secure one of the shares of biggest uranium mines after the country's president confirms he asked paris for help hearing is limited to tax this as he pushes for a better deal from the nuclear dependent friends. while in neighboring mali eyewitnesses reporting a number of civilian casualties as french led troops battle islam as militants for control of the country. as john kerry begins his term as u.s. secretary of state a new study finds some foreign service personnel are paying for the privilege to serve by donating millions to get the top jobs. in kuwait yet another activist thrown in jail for criticizing the emir on twitter sparking protests against the country's unelected rulers.

two am in moscow i matras a good to have you with us here on r t our top story nice shares presidents confirm the presence of french troops in one of the country's biggest uranium mines in arlott he says special forces were asked to come in to avoid a repetition of last month's hostage crisis in neighboring algeria the mining sites itself been a scene of a kidnapping two years ago and those taken at the time haven't yet been freed or he's shown thomas has more. the mine in question is the location in which the french company a revenue has a large stake now it's important to know that this is the second mission in africa completely separate from france's mission in mali which has been going on for nearly a month as neighbors mali and the situation there continues to remain unstable the french government is making it clear that they are ready and willing to protect

their assets in the region and on the african continent as a whole well they've pointed to the incident that happened last month in eastern algeria when islam ists took over a gas plant there eventually leading to forty eight people being killed thirty seven of those foreign workers france is predicting that more islamist retaliation to french presence in africa is likely and they say they want to prevent a tragic situation like this from happening again but then again is the world's fifth largest producer of uranium a product that is vital to the french economy in fact it's estimated that nearly all or at least seventy five percent of france's electric infrastructure is dependent on nuclear power given this it makes sense that france would want to protect that resource at all costs the president has welcomed the french presence in the country and recognizes the need for the having security but has also stated that they want to better deal when it comes to uranium exports measures economy is also largely dependent on your radio as well critics have already been wary of french involvement in mali claiming that the real motivation is

a return to imperialism economic policy and a stronger control of a region that used to be french territory now with france's expansion into neighboring countries compiled with the shares president expressing his concerns those critics now have a bit more that they can chew on. john locke later for me unsuited for democracy and cooperation think securing natural resources isn't the only goal france has in the region. the two main characters in this trial this isn't just to strengthen the role on the international stage and in particular we should be the european. and also the americans. future plans for africa it's important to know that america which strongly supports france in this mali and intervention has plans for establishing a military presence in the military control over the whole of the african continent some people speculated that used the phrase that this was america leading from behind that america decided to put forward its european allies to do as it were it

starts to work in a continent where as i'm sure many of your you viewers know china has been establishing an economic presence now very successfully for a large number of years so there is a ground ball for africa isn't there or is it just to grab some resources yes it is obvious that the securing of energy resources is one of the key factors behind many if not most political developments today and that's why i say that the of course the issue of hydrocarbons and uranium and other energy sources is a key and may even be the decisive factor. french forces have also seen action in neighboring mali with fighter planes targeting the strongholds of islamic terrorists in the northeast of the country or president alon declared his troops are victorious in the northern cities the campaign is now heading into the desert their summit increasing reports of civilians killed in the fighting. francoise

hollande victorious trip to timbuktu marked the declaration that three major cities in northern mali have been declared liberated from rebels although the sharia law and islamic extremism the rebels enforced will not soon be forgotten nevertheless this victory is a partial one the militants have merely retreated and fled and the suffering in this war has seems disproportionate to the gains made we're learning what happened in battle day by day in the town of kona we heard stories from the fog of war this is small settlement in the mopti region was seized by the more yo tribe they fled to the north when french troops showed up but it's reported that the cost of that victory was high while french planes killed only two rebels the number of civilian casualties was an estimated fourteen he said i wasn't home when the bombing began i started praying when i learned my house was under attack they ruined everything i had my family and my livelihood my wife's name was i mean she was forty my son ali

was eleven when adam was ten and say no good was six they all died. my son as. people such as this farmer idris ask themselves if the victory was worth it. we also met the campo family who had suffered badly when the bombing began everyone scatter it the campo lost two of their son of unable to swim they drowned in the river while fleeing the fighting. we also heard the story of a young mother who died from shelters leaving three children behind a newborn baby. the village was a complete mess it's impossible to describe any discuss things i know for sure and i can say that all we had is god. there's old few proving some kids came running up to us and said their mum had donated but i brought them to our house their mother died after an hour of clinging to life the children have nobody else but us let's

get even as they get out there is a disaster visited every house in the town people reject anything the military claims about victory and say war crimes must be prosecuted under the geneva convention towns like qana want more than just compassion people who suffered at the hands of terrorist groups and drug traffickers are now facing the misery inflicted by warfare which is about that yes probably without guns our want. for our tea. or the president has acted decisively in mali at home the french are growing impatient for action particularly on the economy is where your financial reports from paris unemployment continues growing despite a long promising to create more than one hundred thousand new jobs. while president on land is welcomed as a liberator in mali have to france's military operation against the is the mists occupation back at home crowds are also gathered but with a starkly different mood where people are fired up over the continued decline of

europe's second largest economy despite the president's promises to create at least one hundred thousand new jobs the nation is shedding them at an alarming rate last november about a thousand every day the worst figures in years the country's unemployment is approaching a shocking eleven percent with more than three million jobless the french daily lives claims that the exact situation could be even worse if official statistics included youngsters never registered for the unemployment program or those who left it and those stuck with part time work the paper says the rate would then triple but certainly. people expected to have a strong president and now they understand that on doesn't have enough experience for competence to improve things the last two weeks as we see the problems. no believes the strategic mistake was to rectify the e.u. so-called three percent treaty force in france to reduce its budget deficit down

from four point five percent by hiking taxes and cutting spending. but while harsh criticism expected from the opposition disapprovals also been growing from like minded left wingers or companies where i think the president especially of a country like france one of six e.u. founders should be strong enough to say stop to others and say hey i have my nation behind me and they elected me to make changes instead he surrendered because he's more worried about the country's debt and the ratings agencies make. in a short video french communists put together some of our lawns major presidential campaign vows none of which they say came true. look what that's going to be oh the value added tax increase. i think it's an appropriate and unjustified and unreasonable and too hasty. what happened to well that's to remind the presidents do you remember you promised to review the

european treaty you didn't do that your german bring said a three percent deficit isn't real but now only say it's possible etc etc you can't do what you promised meanwhile recent polls show and little rise in the spring she does it leave eighteen. percent january to december through two percent and the lawyers see salons to office in may. every week that is a new subject to discuss in the french media and to draw people's attention from the real problems like gay monitor deployed you are now molly this strategy me were not for long. enough to own land one the french election last year some analysts described his victory as a victory against his predecessor. rather the long now be seen anything of the past that actions in the. months of a presidency have been anything but sunny happenings and even his one star supporters predict even harder times lie ahead for the leader of the country's

municipal elections in two thousand and fourteen have he's currently held great significance and will show whether it can forget and forgive. me for not seeing from paris. stay with us here on r.t. still to come when getting the royal treatment is unwelcome we report on how cold wait is to put people behind bars simply for criticizing the monarch plus. the artistic director of moscow's ronaldo bolshoi ballet heads to germany for id treatment after he announced that he knows who was behind the acid attack on him more than two weeks ago all still to come on r.t. . but first john kerry will face many challenges as he begins his new term as u.s. secretary of state and according to a recent report revelations that big money donors to president obama's campaign have been landing positions in the foreign service might be one of them or he's going to she has more. a recent study by two professors of international relations

at pennsylvania state university looked at available information on president obama's donors direct political contributions and the positions that they received and they concluded that those whose political connections to president obama were measured in dollars rather than administration services had an increased chance of representing the united states in western europe and the smallest chance of serving in say central asia or sub-saharan africa donors and advisers involved in the diplomatic selection process say the competition this year has been so tight that those who have raised less than a million dollars are for the most part unlikely to be considered so what is the quote unquote price tag for the highly sought diplomatic posts according to this study friends in monaco topped the list with the level of personal contributions at six point two million dollars the price for a position in the u.k.

the authors find appears to be between six hundred fifty thousand dollars and two point three million dollars president obama has appointed friends and donors to about thirty percent of diplomatic posts while seventy percent of the posts go to career diplomats so judging by this research career diplomats go to places like yemen while big donors go to monaco this monday was john kerry's first working day as secretary of state these are challenging times for u.s. foreign service u.s. embassies have come under attack in a number of muslim countries just within the last year the rest of us are to leave you with skills in september shortly after the u.s. helped carry out change there is a sense of denial in washington that this rage against the americans in the muslim world has something to do with washington's policies in those countries john kerry has a mixed record to and certainly big challenges ahead after the break is the bolshoi as artistic director goes to germany for treatment we'll look at the impact the

acid attack on certain feeling has had on the world famous theater stay with us. well. technology innovation all these developments from around russia. the future covered. news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations to rule the day. please.

thanks for staying with us here on our t.v. fifteen minutes past the hour now around bolshoi ballet's artistic director will get treatment in germany in hopes of saving his eyesight this after say gay feel and how acid thrown in his face over two weeks ago while feeling claims he knows exactly who was behind the attack no one has yet been arrested or to reports from the moscow hospital where the director was taken after the assault. he's doing rather well surprisingly well actually he did thank the doctors for doing everything in their power to pull him out of

a very difficult situation that he found himself in. third degree burns and those are very severe to his face and neck he said he's full of hope for a full recovery and he is full of willpower and he actually looked very enthusiastic and upbeat about the whole situation of course considering his circumstances actually he did appear to be quite so on his road to recovery he did speak about person who is who has been supposedly behind the attack he did say that he knows exactly who it was on this particular day today did not want to talk about the investigation at all so as not to interfere with the investigation he did however mention. he did every see threats before but he also mentioned and this is important according to city feeling himself he didn't mention that he's continuing to work with everybody who has been left in charge of the bolshoi theater he said that nothing about the boise theater is changing and the performances and

everything about the theater will be carrying on as before. israel's prime minister has announced plans to build a security fence along the syrian border benjamin netanyahu says it's to protect against any threat from radicals if the assad regime was overthrown doctors from all joakim thinks the move has nothing to do with security. poor nearly two years now. at the time of the surgeon c. there were no attacks against israel by the insurgents not by the regime itself so this is a mere pretext israel wants to take advantage of. weakening regime in syria to improve its strategic position especially in defense of its claim to the golan heights imposing a buffer zone will make israel in the future. negotiate over withdrawing from this buffer of their own zone rather than withdrawing from the golan this is an attempt

to annex more territories and it's at the same time and at them to threaten. damascus itself if israel expands its domain by another seventeen kilometers this will make it reach close very close to damascus it's trying to destabilize the regime and it knows very well that the collapse of the regime will lead to a probable division of syria which runs in the interest of israel. in kuwait an opposition activists reportedly been sentenced to five years in prison for criticizing the country's ruler on twitter it's the third time a person has been convicted on such charges in the country in the last two months amnesty international recently hit out at the monarchy for increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly their protests have been raging against the government and its crackdown on dissent since two thousand and eleven tension flared even after december's parliamentary poll which was boycotted by the

opposition one former and he claims the country's democracy has been disfigured. enough money to him and if it would die and i thought of how the images we refute claims that the national assembly represents the people of kuwait around seventy percent of the people boycotted the election and they simply itself was elected thanks to an unconstitutional decree passed by the governments which wanted to parliament it could control its lawmakers have failed to address widespread allegations of corruption so democracy in kuwait has taken a twisted form and it is the only democracy which is seeing an increase of corruption we will continue to hold peaceful marches on peaceful rallies and we will continue to gather and protest we get about one third of it among the kuwaiti much more for you online at r.t. dot com including how president obama could start a cyber war with the push of a button and the website to find out about the ability of the white house allowing him to launch a preemptive cyber attack on any country plus. a city in pakistan where osama bin

ladin was assassinated is due to get a fun make over to improve its image over to r.t. dot com to find out what islam about has in mind for the former home of the world's most wanted terrorist. britain's police have used the identities of dead children as a cover for its officers according to an investigation by the guardian newspaper parents of the children were not asked for approval or even informed message of a journalist tony gosling feels the metropolitan police his methods are unacceptable. it's just the latest chapter isn't it of police corruption here in britain i mean i'm pinching myself today wondering if i live in a democracy or not we're talking about the identities of eighty dead children stolen by the police i mean you do want to tell you where else these infiltrations have been taking place as well do they have police agents within our political parties where are the lines being drawn because it doesn't seem like there are any loans being drawn are absolutely behind the former director of public prosecutions

lord mcdonald who is now saying there must be a public inquiry into these kinds of police practices let's not forget these are crown servants does her majesty know that they're up to this does she approve and i mean there has to be really deep in choir here the guardian of real can of worms and there's absolutely no accountability it seems why these things that have been all through us through through scotland yard the idea that people haven't complained about it therefore it's ok well of course i'm not going to complain about it if they don't know about it it's almost like the scotland yard is being run like some kind of secret cult we've got to break that cult if we're going to have justice so korea and the us have started a joint three day mabel training exercise in the east sea maneuvers committee rising tensions with the north after pyongyang threaten to conduct another nuclear test erik's iraq and co-founder of the national campaign to end the korean war thinks the saber rattling may or rattling may only make things worse. the worst thing you can do under these circumstances is to inflame volatile situation to

conduct these military exercises that always inflame that use live ammunition up and down the border with the with north korea this is inflammatory on a lot of levels and we need to step back with these naval exercises it's like a race to the bottom if you will when are we going to get more creative in the way that we resolve conflict in this world this conflict gives us such an opportunity with a new secretary of state new leader in south korea we should be pushing for peace suspend these naval exercises and go from there yes there should be non proliferation of nuclear weapons on the korean peninsula but we don't even recognize north korea as a nation have a peace treaty or formal relations to deal with these matters what do we expect. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe starting in bahrain where the government set a new date for a long delayed talks with the country's opposition

a call for dialogue aimed at resolving the political crisis comes amidst a new wave of violent clashes between into g.m. protesters and police in the capital and other parts of the country authorities use tear gas to disperse crowds who are hurling fire bombs the gulf came in has been cracking down on proforma demonstrators for two years arresting thousands including prominent activists. a skeleton found under a car park in the city of leicester in the u.k. has been confirmed is that of king richard the third the monarch was the last english king to be killed in battle back and fourteen eighty five but his grave was lost in the sixteenth century after the demolition of the church he was buried next to remains will be reinterred in leicester cathedral with the details of the reed burial ceremony yet to be released the. demonstrators gathered outside the german parliament to protest against the visit of spain's prime minister mariano rajoy is in germany to discuss loan deals that economists say are vital to reviving

his country's economy while in berlin or has once again denied corruption allegations already sparking protests in madrid last week is pictures are courtesy of ruptly artie's recently founded video international news agency. in the u.s. thousands of people were forced to undergo lie detector tests every year and that includes answering some very intimate questions which have nothing to do with national security or his marine important i met with a former cia employee for more what's behind the polygraph. for more than three decades john sullivan worked as a polygraph examiner for america's central intelligence agency today the retired cia employee is offering some strong opinions about the nation's lie detector policy too many honest people are too many people who should be passing their tests aren't and there's no there's no accountability for that. last year more than seventy three thousand americans were reportedly required to

undergo polygraph tests in order to get or keep jobs with the federal government according to an investigation by mcclatchy newspapers a growing number of u.s. agencies are asking employees and applicants intimate questions that extend way beyond the realm of national security probing matters such as sexual conduct financial matters and past personal relationships a woman was pressured to talk about her experience being molested as a child and when the polar bear for said that he refused to go on with the interrogation he alleges that he was pressured to go back and continue interrogating or a decade ago the national academies an organization advising washington on scientific matters urged the feds to stop using polygraphs as a screening technique scientists found that polygraphs aren't reliable enough to prevent innocent people from failing and deceptive candidates from passing i think

it's important to understand that the polygraph is not just. for screening it's an interrogation tool lisa ribicoff is an independent polygraph examiner and investigate. who uses the polygraph program designed by homeland security she contends that it's ninety eight percent accurate i do think that there are some questions pertaining to some emotional aspects and personal situations should not be included but i do understand why they're included on the basis of that the government needs to see how exactly what their breaking point is what are they willing to discuss what are they not willing to discuss however applicants who are denied a coveted position after failing a polygraph are prohibited from accessing the records of their interrogation and are often barred from contesting the results were filing complaints in federal court in two thousand and four the cia veteran who conducted lie detector interrogations for thirty one years failed his own screening there was absolutely

no question in my mind the test was right it's this was a terrible test sullivan lost his security clearance and was denied a job with a federal contracting agency he claims his examiner falsified the results possible retribution for solving his book detailing america's polygraph system the subs are coming in for a polygraph test now are guilty until proven innocent and i think that's. a corruption and an abuse of the process the obama administration is now promising to draft a new national polygraph policy that would prevent agencies from pushing legal or ethical boundaries during screenings but at the moment the program has no oversight or accountability meaning tens of thousands of u.s. citizens will continue getting personally probes in the name of national security bring up or not our team new york. after the break the third part of our feature length documentary on the occupy movement stay with us here on r.t.

. secretary of state hillary clinton recently testified to congress in regards to the attack on the us consulate was killed an american ambassador in benghazi libya during the testimony couldn't rather calmly said things like that the revolutions that sprang up during the arab spring like in libya where the events in bali have created instability and safe havens for terrorists and she made it clear that there is no doubt that the algerian terrorists had weapons from libya so the us secretary has basically admitted that the actions of the usa and nato have caused a mass instability that has allowed the seeds of terrorism to grow when the

justification for most of the actions in the muslim world is to stop evil dictators who harbor terrorists or spread chiding democracy if libya would have been left alone algerian terrorists wouldn't be getting any weapons from it now this is like an exterminator accidently or maybe on purpose actually feeding the roaches in your basements that there are ten times more of them and then saying that he has to keep working because he's the only one who can get rid of the roaches people like hillary clinton who support funding brutal jihad as rebel groups to overthrow governments to somehow bring about stability and democracy are either dismally stupid or consciously running a very brutal con game but that's just my opinion.